I'm Getting A New Amp

[TapperMike]

I just bought a Yamaha THR 10C on ebay.  Expect delivery sometime next week.

 

 

My pignose (after having it for well over 30 years is giving off some hum.

My Roland Cube is kind of a pain because it's next to impossible to dial in realistic tones untill it's at least at 6 and the cops come knocking at 4.

 

The 10 c is the perfect version for me.  I'd read some bad reports about earlier thr10's having bad circuitry and that the deluxe sound broke up to early.  The 10x is the metal variety of the amp and not really what I want.  The 10c on the otherhand has classic jazz, blues, and rock tones.  

 

The software that comes with the unit allows access to even more sounds not available by just twisting knobs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukorEPls-lU

 

 

It should be lots of fun.

 

[TapperMike]

I've watched this video where someone goes through the included software presets which you can send/store on it.

 

And it looks like someone has made a patch library resource online.

http://guitarpatches.com/patches.php?unit=THR10C

 

This is going to be my soundcard replacement as well. It has a separate clean stereo line in and comes with cubase ai

The signal sent to the computer over usb is both clean and amped separately. So I can either use the amp tones or reamp in my daw. I've got several vst amp modelers/effects racks including ik media's guitar rig.

[TapperMike]

Well It's here and.... I'm  really liking it.

 

I'm having a hard time beliieving this thing is only ten watts but more on that later.  To save myself a lot of typing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE6V3QqGppA

 

After it arrived I pulled it out of the box and got familar with it away from the computer without reading the manual becase that's the type of real guy I am.

Everything they say in the video is true.  For the first 5 minutes of playing it I kept on saying to myself "Wow this is really ten watts" It's a very full sound due to the nearfield amp / speaker design. The guitar amp hits you in a full spatial stereo sound. It sounds like a amp from across the room as opposed to one that's a few feet away.  So I went through all my guitars and all the inbox sounds.  My Strat hasn't sounded as good in ten years not since I sold my traynor.  It's so much more a tube amp type of sound then my Roland Cube. Just like the video explains the tone controls react like they would on the original amps it's not like the generic low/mid/hi eq settings on a solid state amp.

 

So after a few hours of playing I was curious about the other goodies. It's got a usb and aside from having a separate stereio in it not only sends and returns audio from your computer like an external soundcard (which it is) but there is an editor which allows access to features which can't be gotten to across the top of the amp.

 

This is where things get interesting.  Per instructions on a little card I go to yamaha for the usb driver and cubase asio before connecting the amp to my computer.  Naturally they have both 64 and 32 bit versions and.....my computer is 64bit but I still use a lot of 32bit daws and plugins.  I want it to run with everything I've got. 

 

I download both the most current drivers for windows and.... My computer freaks out.  the installer pushes up a little prompt that states "My processor has insufficent power.  Damn you yamaha I'm not too old err my computer isn't that old it's still got plenty of power.  So I did that with the 64bit driver set first.  Okay maybe if I install the 32bit driver yammy software will play nice with processor/computer.  So after a few attempts I get the non functioning drivers uninstalled dig down and find an older driver that does install and works with my computer.

 

It was already fun just having really really good amp sims and playing around trying to figure out classic rock tones by going thru the amp models and adjusting the volume/gain/eq.  All without fear or neighbor reprisal.  It has not two but three volume controls for guitar on the amp.  Which means you can get the tube saturation (emulation) from both the pre tubes and the power tubes.  But I digress what I wanted at that point was to open up the computer editor and get the other features that one can't access from the box itself.  I also wanted the external soundcard amp and speakers so I could mix the "guitar" sound with sounds from my computer.

 

So finally with the joy of the drivers and THR editor installed I moved foreward to playing around with the internal tools like compressor, changing the speaker sims getting different reverbs (not just spring) out of it.  Thank goodness it's not IKM guitar rig.  I didn't want to dig through every amp sim known to man and some that aint.  This thing has no latency whatsoever and has no aliasing (pod) and no noise (pandora)

 

I've been enjoying the presets included in the THR 10C editor / librarian

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukorEPls-lU#aid=P-JYWPb_IBc

 

Not a single one is "What Steve Vai had for breakfast.  It's all bread and butter classic rock tones that are extremely convincing.

 

It has Five amp sims and then a flat which is like sending a signal direct out an acoustic and a bass preset model.

The bass preset sounds like.... playing through a fender bassman to my ears (And I've owned one)   Which is great for deep bodied warm clean tones from a guitar that sound...natural.  The Acoustic is a bit of a misnomer.  It's not an acoustic guitar simulator or one of those super bright sounds to pull up brash harmonics.  It is infact more of a mic sim which is slightly darker distant tone but not "bassy"  The deluxe, Bass and Acoustic sounds are all quite wonderful for pulling out jazz, .clean 60's/70's soft rock/pop/soul tones.

 

There are "patch' sites where users have created unique patchs and you can create your own in the editor and store the patch/preset in the editor.  If you haven't filled up your 5 memory slots on the THR you can store it directy to the thr disconnect it from the computer and carry the tone with you everywhere by the press of a button.  That aint going to happen with me.  My THR has replaced my M-Audio fast track pro.  Real ASIO not ASIO4All. 24/48 in and out not 16/44.1 and the THR has separate amplification and speakers for the computer which sound great so I'm ditching my powered speakers for my computer as well.

 

Did I mention this thing sounds awesome for an mp3 player/ computer amp?  and it has a separate volume for the usb in/ audio in so I can mix the sounds in one box for listening to.

[TapperMike]

Bump I've written a review in my blog.

http://forums.songstuff.com/blog/159/entry-1484-review-yamaha-thr10c-the-little-amp-that-can/

[Jim622]

Mike - its been a few months. What are your thoughts now.

[TapperMike]

It's still a great little amp. Though I confess I no longer spend endless hours tweaking tones with the editor. I've yet to touch my Roland Cube since getting the THR-C